Hooray!

Let no one ever say that the internet is unkind or inefficient, because only two days ago I made a post asking for help finding reprints of Golden Age Cat-Man and Kitten tales, and the very next day someone told me just where I could find them (along with reprints of other Golden Age titles--which are hard enough to find if they're Marvel or DC, almost impossible if, as with Cat-Man, they are not).

Since I am a sucker for the Golden Age books, this is a good thing :).

Cat-Man and Kitten?

I'm wondering whether the Golden Age Cat-Man comic has ever been reprinted anywhere. It's got my interest right now because as far as I can tell, it's the only Golden-Age instance of a hero's sidekick being a young girl rather than a young boy.

I don't mean the Australian version, and I don't mean the revival, both of which featured an older version of Kitten, where she is a romantic partner for Cat-Man (or perhaps it was Catman by then?) instead of a ward or whatever-you-call-it.

Now, I've never read any version of Cat-Man and Kitten (the only Catman I'm familiar with is Gail Simone's :), who is an entirely different character). Here's just about all I know about the Golden Age hero team:

[David] Merryweather...dons a costume and becomes the Cat-Man... Just to make his life more complicated as a U.S. soldier, he gains an unlikely crime-fighting sidekick--an eleven-year-old girl named Katie Conn.

After Katie's parents are killed in a train wreck,the soldier informally "adopts" her. Since the girl is a trained acrobat, he makes her his aide and mascot. With a similar, cute cat-suit, Katie becomes Kitten. Although Katie takes to calling the Cat-Man her "Uncle David," the innocent relationship progresses as Kitten grows up in a big way. By the end of the series, the coquettish and fully developed Kitten and her Uncle David could certainly provide rich fodder for small-minded gossips.*

I'm very interested in the earlier books in this title (while Kitten was still a girl), but as far as I know, they have never been reprinted. The book was published by Holyoke Publishing, a fairly small company--however, it's possible that a larger company may have purchased the rights to the book in the 60 or so years intervening. Particularly I'm interested in seeing how the Golden Age writers treated a female kid sidekick and wondering whether there was any significant difference in the hero-sidekick relationship (not a particularly responsible one at the best of times back then) when the sidekick was a girl.

---

* Benton, Mike. Superhero Comics of the Golden Age. Dallas, Texas: Taylor Publishing Company, 1992.

Why I gave up on Civil War

When I started buying Marvel's Civil War books, I didn't have a lot of expectations--figured that I'd like it or I wouldn't like it but I'd probably want to know about it. At first, on the whole I liked it--in any case, didn't hate it. Didn't like it to the point of having nothing to complain about, but didn't hate it. It's an event, apparently those happen in comics these days, and I'm pretty open-minded about these things.

Why'd I change my tune? When did that happen?

When it started interfering with my hobby.

Bought the Civil War-specific titles, fine, no problem.

Then there was some Civil War content in books I already buy--okay, some of that (Iron Man and Captain America* in particular) is unavoidable. Eventually it'll be over, and in the mean time, it doesn't all suck.

But when Civil War keeps my regularly-scheduled comics from their appointed rounds, that's when I object. Lateness. That's what set my teeth on edge, and that's what made me stop wanting to like Civil War.

Know what else it does? Makes me less interested in picking up future events.

Well, maybe.

But right now, Civil War? Lost the fun some time ago.




* Okay, Captain America will never wholly suck as long as Brubaker is writing it. But damn.

Marvel Legends Action Figures: Captain Marvel, Moon Knight, Spider-Woman, and the Wasp

I used to read Captain Marvel when I was a kid; I'm not altogether sure why, because I've never been a big fan of the cosmic sort of hero (or of Rick Jones, for that matter), but I read it regularly, which is the main reason I got this figure.

And it's a great-looking figure. Mar-Vell's costume was always one of my favorites and it's reproduced faithfully (as is his great hair). He's not overly muscular, although he does seem to have a bit of that hunch that Marvel Legends tend to give their musclebound heroes.

He's also very playable--good articulation for the most part, although the head doesn't turn well and the right hand is permanently set in a clenched claw position. The waist is a bit loose but the other joints are nice and tight, and Mar-Vell can stand well enough, can sit easily, and is quite a fine toy. He doesn't get a lot of play because, well, he's dead, and the kids don't really know who he is and where he should fit into their games. But a good toy.

Moon Knight I'm less familiar with, apart from the current blood-and-guts run. He looks good, has an absolutely fabulous cape, and comes with nunchuks and a nifty staff. His costume is mostly black, which doesn't jibe with what I do recall of Moon Knight (didn't he always wear all white?) but it looks fine.

He seems to have pretty much the same body as Captain Marvel, meaning not too bulky (and not at all like Finch draws him in his current title). He has good articulation, including full finger articulation (meaning that he can lift his pinky while he drinks his tea); other than that, his playability is about the same as Captain Marvel's. Good toy. Awesome cape.

Spider-Woman, on the other hand, is built very much like her current depiction. She's a nice-looking figure, but seems to automatically fall into some fairly girly poses, due in part to a very flexible waist--it's harder to get her into a battle pose than it is, say, Psylocke.

Playability...the soft plastic webbing under her arms does interfere with her playability, tends to get in the way most of the time and limits arm movement. Her hands and feet are not articulated, not a huge deal. Her long hair falls partially in front, so she can barely move her head at all, either side-to-side or up-and-down. She is, however, very flexible and can get into a wide variety of positions, which is always a plus. Good toy.

The Wasp seems to have much the same body sculpt as Spider-Woman, but is somehow easier to pose. She looks good, although honestly if I'd known that the variants looked so much better I'd have tried to get one. (That's what I get for pre-ordering before the pictures are available. Would have tried to get the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman as well if I'd known she was Spider-Woman's variant...)

She's very posable, with good articulation on the whole (no hand or foot articulation). Her permanently-attached wings are very nice, can be positioned in different ways. She has very short hair, which enables her to lean her head back quite far--very good for flying. Good toy. The eight-year-old barely let me have her long enough to write this!

Marvel Legends Action Figures: Iron Man (Original Armor) and Psylocke

The first, and main, complaint I have about the Iron Man is that the face mask won't stay on. Doesn't matter what you do, it falls off. Considering that at the time Tony wore this version of the armor, he actually had a well-guarded secret identity, this isn't good.

Apart from that, it's a delightful figure! It's the original version of Iron Man's armor, the grey one. (I believe the variant for this toy was the same armor painted gold.) It's not extremely articulated, as you'd expect given the clunky design (although I think it's possible that the toy is more articulated than the actual armor was!) It looks great.

And it's playable! It sits down, easily. It stands up, effortlessly! The head does not turn but it does go up and down. It has better arm and leg movement than any of the other IM figures I've seen. Awesome.

As for Psylocke, we were surprisingly pleased with her as well. She's probably the sturdiest female figure I've seen come out of the Marvel Legends line. She's slender of course, but not scrawny. The costume--well, you've all seen Psylocke's costume, and honestly--despite the vast amounts of bare flesh--the figure actually wears a more modest version of it than 2D Psylocke usually does. (I suspect that the belt is where it is--covering a large part of the front--because of this.)

Her playability is also excellent, particularly when compared with a lot of the other female figures. She can stand, for gosh sake! Marvel Legends women can never stand! And when I say "stand," I mean that she poses easily in combat positions and doesn't fall down at the slightest breeze. She can sit, of course. Very good arm and leg articulation; the fingers are not articulated, although this is not an issue for me--but neither are the feet, and I do like that bendable toe when you get it, so that's a point against her. Finally, the hair--this is the only figure I've seen in which long hair does not significantly restrict head movement. And it looks good.

If I graded these figures (and it's really too late to start now), I'd give Psylocke an A, Iron Man an A- (solely because of the face mask problem).

How to wait for the trade

I've decided to amend my comic-buying habits a bit; namely, I'm going to start to "wait for the trade" for some titles. Because it occurred to me that some comics are edge-of-the-seat, can't-wait-to-see-what-happens books, and others--although I still enjoy them--are not. For example, Captain America? Edge-of-the-seater. Green Lantern Corps? There's usually at least one storyline in it that I'm anxious to see how it turns out. The new Justice League book? From now on, I can wait. Justice Society? Probably another waiter (although I do like it better than what I've seen of the League's current title). And I'm reasonably sure that those two will eventually make it into trade form.

That's the other issue, though--how do we know which books will and will not eventualy become trade paperbacks? I mean, they don't announce it ahead of time--do folks just guess, or assume?

Kid superheroes

I've long had an interest in the way kid heroes are treated in superhero comic books. It's one of the reasons for my interest in Golden Age books. This doesn't mean I necessarily read every current book featuring kid heroes (although I do like Young Avengers quite a lot, I never read Runaways until the CW mini featuring both teen teams, and having done so I still have no inclination to add Runaways to my get list).

Possibly my interest is based in my lack of early exposure to kid heroes when I was a kid. I was always primarily a Marvel reader, and Marvel didn't do sidekicks (apart from Rick Jones, who never did have a typical hero-sidekick relationship with any of the three heroes he used to hang with). When they did have teenage characters, they were not subordinate to an adult hero as in the case of Batman and Robin (as I recall them from the little Silver Age DC I did read). The X-Men were teenagers--in fact, their secret identities were those of students in a private school--and although Xavier was their teacher, it was the X-Men who did the battling, with only occasional aid from the Professor. And Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, was an equal partner in the Fantastic Four (certainly not the most mature partner, he was hot-headed and quick to fight, but then so was the Thing, a contemporary of Reed Richards). Spider-Man was also a teenager, and operated entirely on his own, associated with no older hero at all.

(I know that DC Comics has a far richer tradition of young heroes and sidekicks, but I have not read enough DC to comment intelligently on what they've done, so my discussion here is going to be limited to Marvel books.)

As I said, Marvel had younger heroes, but did not really have kid heroes. Mutants by definition were at least of teen age, because mutant powers did not typically activate until puberty. Other heroes tended to gain their powers via training or industrial accidents, situations less likely to apply to young kids.

And although Marvel/Timely's Golden Age kid sidekicks were clearly depicted as kids in the 1940s, later images of these heroes in flashback tended to age them.

For example, here's an image of Captain America's partner, Bucky, from a WWII-era comic, looking all of ten years old, if that (not that any specific age was ever given):



Here's a picture of Bucky from a Silver Age Captain America book (thank you, Marvel Essentials!). You'll notice that this Bucky is probably supposed to be at least thirteen or fourteen--still young, but now specifically a teenager:



Finally, this series of panels from the recent Brubaker Winter Soldier storyline, when Cap is first introduced to the sixteen-year-old Bucky. The age is specifically given, and it's also mentioned that there were plenty of other sixteen-year-old soldiers in the army at this time (therefore, while Bucky is young, it's not culturally inappropriate for that time period):



You'll also notice how the responsibility for Bucky's becoming Cap's sidekick shifts over time. In the 1940s, it was Cap's idea! (This surprised me, although I suppose it shouldn't have--Cap is the adult, the authority figure, and it had to be his choice of who to work with.) By the 1960s, it was Bucky's idea and Cap went along with it because he really had no choice. And in 2005, neither Cap nor Bucky originated the plan, and although clearly Cap is more conflicted about it than Bucky, the idea belongs to the Army, who have authority over both Cap and Bucky.

The notion of kids running around together, having great (and perilous) adventures with no adult supervision, is one with a lot of history in the media. In the old days it was practically a movie genre of its own. No one ever asked where the Bowery Boys' parents were, after all, while they were wandering the streets all day and night. And for those less urban movie kids, excuses were made for parental absence: Nancy Drew's father traveled a lot, and her mother was dead. Any adventurous girls could practically be guaranteed a missing mother, because what mother would let her daughter roam the town unchaperoned? (Dads were allowed to be less careful, apparently.) Adventurous boys were more likely to have a mother, but she was never a strong figure, never able to keep her son from his gallivanting (unless of course the plot required it), and more often than not taking a "boys will be boys" attitude about the whole thing.

Easier still to make them all orphans, as was most often the case in comic books. The young hero only became a hero because of his (it was almost always a boy) association with an older hero. The older hero took on a fatherly or brotherly role, and there seems to be no objection from anyone to the younger hero entering dangerous situations. Even the frequent capture (and threatened torture) of the younger hero doesn't seem to give anyone a second thought. Besides, there's never really any worry, because the sidekick's mentor will always come to the rescue and save his young protege. The Golden Age kid sidekick is never operating on his own.

And even in a group situation--kid heroes working together--the adult heroes are often a presence, and you get the feeling that they'll certainly show up if and when the youngstes are in any danger they can't handle. Although I've not read any of the Young Allies books (are there any reprints of these comics?), here's a passage from All in Color for a Dime describing a typical issue:

Much more successful were The Young Allies, a kid gang headed by Bucky and Toro. The rest of the gang included the usual kid gang lineup: Tubby, the fat slob; Knuckles, the pugnacious kid from Brooklyn; Jefferson Worthington Sandervilt, boy inventor who vociferated exclusively in polysyllabic vocabulary--and Whitewash Jones, the inevitable minstrel-show caricature of a Negro, superstitious and watermelon-loving, with pendulous lips, bulging eyes, a zoot suit, and natural rhythm.

Their first adventure had them battling the Red Skull; being patted on the head by Hitler ("My! My! Vot nice Cherman boys!"), who didn't notice Bucky's costume, Toro's swimming trunks, or Whitewash's non-Aryan coloring; being imprisoned in a concentration camp; breaking out; flying to Russia, where they were nearly sent to Siberia; flying to China; returning to America, and being rescued by Captain America and the Human Torch. Whew!!

(During the course of the story, Bucky disguised himself as the Red Skull by painting an ordinary human skull red and putting it over his head. God knows how.) (1)

From what I can see, modern comics featuring teen heroes (pre-teen kid heroes seem to be much rarer) seem to operate in much the same way as they have since the 1960s--or they try to. The Young Avengers were a bit surprised to run into objections when they began fighting crime, particularly from the older then-ex-Avengers Captain America and Iron Man.



Cap of course would rather the hero business remain adults-only for personal reasons, but he does understand the concept. As for Iron Man, at this point he doesn't seem to have any kid-specific objections, and my impression is that if he could get away with keeping even those adults dear to him from going into battle, he would do it. Regardless, the kids do not get much support from the older heroes at this time, although eventually it does become apparent that they need to know how to use their powers because simply having these abilities makes them targets, and at the very least they need to know how to protect themselves. A far cry from jovially welcoming them to the team.

Since then--well, it's been so long since I've seen an issue of YA that I'm not entirely sure what's been going on with them. They seem to be somewhat active, and to have received some training, but of course Civil War has confused a lot of issues. Regardless, the group has not been thrilled at being discounted or held back because of their age.

The X-Men are no longer teenagers and have not been for some time; those students at Xavier's school who are underage are trained, but discouraged from entering dangerous situations (which would make for a pretty dull New X-Men title, if it weren't for the fact that dangerous situations just tend to happen to anyone associated with the X-Men).

The main thing, I think, is that as a culture we have become much more aware of the need for protecting our children, to the point where the average modern comic reader would find the freedom given the Young Allies (or even the early X-Men) difficult to accept. Nowadays, it's no longer a certainty that the hero will save the day and everything will be all right in the end. Comic book heroes die, are tortured, severely injured, crippled, violated, traumatized. If those things are possible for adult heroes, they are also possible for young heroes--and writers and readers may not be willing to condone that or even to show it.

A good example of this shift is given here, where J. Jonah Jameson tells Jessica Jones (a one-time kid hero herself) about his own experiences as a kid during WWII, and the way public perception of kid heroes changed after the "death" of Bucky:



This is clearly a retcon (back in the 60s the only one complaining about teen heroes was Cap himself, and that seemed only to extend to his own unwillingness to work with kids anymore) but it does make some sense that the public would have shared the same assumptions that the older comic book audience did--that the hero would always come to the rescue, that the kid sidekick was never really in any danger because good would always triumph over evil--and that those assumptions could have been broken by the death of a young hero.

The real problem with Jonah's point is that the general public did not know that Cap and Bucky had disappeared at the time it happened--that's why the government supposedly brought in Jack Monroe and his mentor to be the 1950s commie-bashing Cap and Bucky, so that Cap's death in 1945 would remain a secret--so, yeah, there are huge holes in this idea, but it does have some validity in terms of what could have changed public opinion. (It does not work with the rest of Marvel continuity, unfortunately.) In reality, of course, it's been a far more gradual thing.

It does, in any case, seem to be a fairly universal opinion in the modern Marvel universe that minors should not be fighting crime. Even the Winter Soldier himself, a former kid sidekick and a man out of time with, presumably, a lot of outdated attitudes, seems uncomfortable with the idea of working with kid heroes.




On the other hand, from the context it could certainly be inferred that what he is questioning is their competence rather than whether it is appropriate for them to be out there in the first place. After all, his first inclination is to "let them take it out" on their own. That would seem to make more sense given his background--that while he might not ally himself with teenagers by choice, he probably wouldn't have the same objections to the concept as the modern world does.

---

1. Thompson, Don. "OK, Axis, Here We Come!" All In Color For A Dime, ed. Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson. Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 1997. (Originally published in 1970.)

Marvel Legends Action Figures: Banshee, Hercules, Emma Frost

These are the first I've seen of the new Hasbro Marvel Legends line, and while I'm not displeased with them, I am a little disappointed. If I hadn't seen the old Marvel Legends by ToyBiz I would probably be perfectly happy with these--but I have, so I'm not, not entirely in any case. Hasbro has greatly reduced the degree of articulation, and while they are absolutely playable, they just don't have the extreme articulation that marked the ToyBiz Marvel Legends--specifically, they have no hand or finger articulation. No bendable toe, which really is nice to have for posing. The packages don't even mention articulation (and as you may recall, each ToyBiz Marvel Legend had the number of points of articulation printed on the package--it was a selling point!). (However, the packages are far, far easier to open than the ToyBiz packages, and I can't complain about that!)

Now, all those complaints are only by comparison with the old ones. Without that base of comparison, these are just fine--they have plenty of range of movement. All can sit, do side kicks, rotate arms fully, have wrist and ankle motion. All but Emma have good head and neck movement, and she really only lacks it because of her hair, which is not unusual in these figures. They are absolutely playable figures, and I would absolutely recommend them as toys.

As for how they look? Well, the ToyBiz figures were pretty variable in that respect as well, so I'm not going to criticize too much on that point.

Hercules looks great, very much as he does in the comics. He's huge--lots of muscles (with veins! :P), and the bulk does interfere a bit with his movement, but it's not terrible. The face is very well done, and he's a good addition to our collection. And he comes with a lovely phallic mace, a nice touch.

Banshee is not bad. The costume is fine, and the glider wings are cloth and removable. His mouth is open, so that he's permanently emitting his sonic scream. The paint job is all right apart from the neck joint--he's designed so that his head can lean back quite far, and since the base color of his body is apparently dark green (with the flesh tone painted over) you can see the green in the joint, which is a bit distracting. The main complaint I have about his appearance, though, is his paleness--he's fair enough to look pretty goth, which I don't recall noticing in my old X-Men books. But overall, not bad.

And then there's Emma Frost. What to say about Emma? Well, I'll start with a direct quote from the eight-year-old: "She's really way too skinny and her head's too small." The husband thinks she looks like a druggie, and she does have that heroin chic thing going for her. Tiny, narrow face with unfocused eyes, arms so slender that the elbows and wrists are wider than the rest--the twelve-year-old calls her emaciated. She does, indeed, look unhealthy, particularly when one removes her cape (as one does right away because she's easier to play with that way).

You know, when an eight-year-old--an eight-year-old who's a fan of Bratz dolls--notices and objects to the way an action figure is built, there's something extreme going on.

Infinite Crisis Action Figure: Power Girl

Very nice figure visually--good facial detailing, good costume design, and probably the most muscular female figure we've got (apart from She-Hulk). She's slightly stockier than most female figures, which fits my impression of Power Girl herself--yes, she's got an enormous rack, but she also (usually) has a fairly large frame to go with it. Her arms and legs are sturdy and muscled, and she looks like an athlete.

She's reasonably playable, although the range of motion in her legs is limited. Good arm movement, can sit comfortably. No waist movement, which seems to be par for the course for the primarily-decorative figures. We like her.

Batman/Hush Action Figure: Huntress

Yes, I got two (2!) Huntress action figures this Yule. What can I say, I think she's got one of the best designs out there. Besides, we can say that one (the Earth-2 Huntress I discussed a few days ago) is Helena Wayne, and the other is Helena Bertinelli.

This Huntress is nicely detailed, visually very impressive. No complaints on that front.

For playability? Tolerable. Head turns, waist doesn't, decent arm movement, not-great leg movement. One hand has a gun permanently attached, which appears to be less of a problem than one would expect.

The Earth-2 Huntress figure does seem to be a better toy, but this one is so nicely done that I tend to forgive a lot--however, the kids obviously prefer the other one, so I have to give the vote to that one.

The December '06 Comics [Spoilers]

All-New Atom #6
Not as many giggles provided as in previous issues, but still a lot of fun. Good action sequences, and I particularly liked the hard edge Ryan showed in defeating the villain by stealing his control belt and leaving him trapped in shrunken form. Damn! This being comics, I'm sure he'll be back somehow but for now, just wow. Also the end of this story arc, and I'm absolutely looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Birds of Prey #101
This book is becoming a real education on obscure female DC heroes--which is fine, because they're generally introduced with a reasonable amount of context. The idea of a the group consisting of a small core group and a larger number of "temps" is a good one--with the varied cases the Birds take on, having the option of greater specialization is a good one.

Captain America #24
Really, this is about the first issue of Cap since Brubaker took it over that I really haven't enjoyed all that much. (Damn Civil War...) I liked Sharon quite a bit in this issue, particular the fact that while she may find the pro-reg side's actions more reprehensible, she's not giving Cap and his side a walk either. Can I wait Civil War out? We'll see... (I mostly liked it at first, in the Civil War-specific books, but it's taken over so many other books that I've gotten pretty annoyed.)

Green Lantern #15
I did not care for this issue and I have taken the title off my get list.

Ion #8 and #9
I am starting to like this series (2/3 of the way through it!). Liking the characterization of Kyle as somewhat immature, reflecting the grasp he feels he has on his new powers. Am I the only one who thinks that this new power level may not last much beyond this series? My second-favorite title of the month.

Iron Man #14
Poor Pepper (although I was glad to see her portrayed something like she used to be back in the Silver Age before she was glamorized--haven't seen those freckles in years, have we?). An uncharacteristic treatment of Cap. A sympathetic treatment of Tony (well, it is his book, after all!). So...how long is it until Civil War is over? Iron Man used to be one of my favorite books...

Irredeemable Ant-Man #3
Wow, a book I am reading entirely because of the story! It's certainly novel to be reading a comic and hoping for the protagonist to get his. Just how much lower can this guy go? So far it's keeping me coming back.

Justice League of America #4 and #5
Still liking Black Canary. (Although wondering what's up with her being active in the JLA when she left Birds of Prey to take care of that little girl...) Still waiting to like Red Tornado. Still planning to get this book although that could change.

Justice Society of America #1
I never read the old version of this title, but at this point I certainly plan on staying with this one for a while--good introduction to characters I don't know (although I'm not sure about Ma Hunkle--from what I've read this is a big change--does/did she have powers in the new continuity?) The twelve-year-old likes it, Stargirl being one of her favorite characters. She prefers it to the current Justice League book, and I have to agree with her on that point.

Ms. Marvel #10
Holy crap! Now, I like Carol. I'm predisposed to like Carol, having read her first when I was a teen. Hell, I still like Carol--if she takes this opportunity to think about what she should really be aspiring to as a hero. There's a really good place now for that to be explored, and I hope this book does that next and doesn't just leave the issue hanging.

Secret Six #6
The last issue of the mini-series, sadly. And what a way to get rid of the Hatter! I honestly never saw that coming--although Ragdoll's remarkable short-sightedness in making an enemy of Tetch was not out of character. Please, DC, may we have some more?

She-Hulk #12
Very little She-Hulk in this issue, actually. The revelation that while She-Hulk's love for husband John ended when Andy ended his unwitting influence, his did not--really sad, almost made me feel for John (a character I really haven't cared for in this book). Andy's story, I found less compelling, but I hope he isn't gone for too long.

Winter Soldier: Winter Kills
My favorite read this month. Although far lighter in tone than I expected (I figured there'd be a lot more angst, doom and gloom than there is), I think it still supplies a realistic look at the Winter Soldier, who is above all a practical sort of guy and only somewhat given to introspection. Best parts? The guest appearance of the Young Avengers, who we haven't seen in their own title in far too long. The World War II scenes (apart from the eyebrows on just about everyone--whoever drew those bits provided all the characters with some truly scary eyebrow action!). The scene with Namor was perfect. Seriously, I can't say enough nice things about this book. (Particularly since my Cap fix this month was a bit wanting...) So is WS going to get his own title at some point? I'd buy it.

Books I'm not discussing this month even though I've read them:

• 52, because I never seem to have much to say about any particular issue.
  
• Earth's Mightiest Heroes, because I'm just not enjoying it enough to want to think any more about it.
  

Crisis on Infinite Earths Action Figures: Pre-Crisis Supergirl, Earth-2 Huntress, Dr. Light

I was happy overall with these three. They look good, and I like that the body types on the three figures vary--Dr. Light is slender and slim-hipped, Supergirl is still slim but has more curves, while Huntress (arguably the most athletic of the trio) is the most muscular, with broader shoulders, and looks as if one of her kicks would hurt quite a bit. (Supergirl, being Kryptonian, can sit around all day watching TV and still be perfectly capable of kicking butt--she's strong regardless of how she is built.)

The facial detail is also very good, and as far as I can tell the costumes are faithful as well. Supergirl's red headband certainly dates her, but that's what she was wearing back then.

All three can sit comfortably, have good arm motion, and can turn their heads at least somewhat. None turn at the waist. All have wrist motion (in fact, Huntress' wrists move so well that her right hand tends to come off and is currently MIA), and Dr. Light can also turn her ankles (completely around, as it happens, something that definitely did not escape the notice of the kids). And Supergirl also has fairly good hip movement, can do some good side and back kicks (presumably this was possible because her hip joints are hidden by her skirt, because the effect isn't particularly attractive).

All can stand, but tend to topple over easily. Dr. Light in particular has a peculiar posture, although that might be blamed on her ridiculously high heels, I'm guessing they'd be about 5 inches. (Huntress' heels would probably be about 2 inches. Supergirl wears flats.)

It seems to be a difficult balance with these figures, between being playable (articulated) and visually accurate. Huntress and Dr. Light go for the latter. Supergirl tries to be both and doesn't quite make it. As toys go they're decent if unexceptional.

Top Ten Things I Enjoyed Reading in 2006

1. Captain America
This book is so much better than I ever remember it having been before! The Winter Soldier storyline was phenomenal, the Red Menace arc almost as good, and although the need to include Civil War is certainly hurting the book, I fully expect Brubaker to pull it back to its former level of excellence when CW is over.

2. Secret Six
A miniseries, I know, and now over, but I fully enjoyed this title while it lasted and I'm hoping for an ongoing. Every so often the sympathetic portrayals make you forget that these are (on the whole) not good guys, but someone always reminds you. There's always something surprising, and always something you want more of.

3. Identity Crisis
Well, it was new to me, and one of the first things I picked up for my introduction to DC Comics. It's not the kind of book you can really say you enjoy, but it was spellbinding (not to mention a good reintro to comic characters I hadn't read in 30+ years). I read it in a sitting.

4. Morrison-era JLA Trades
I fully enjoyed every page of the ten or twelve books I picked up; they were always entertaining, action-filled yet character-driven, and (again) a good overview of some of DC's iconic characters. I hope I enjoy the new Justice League title even half as much.

5. Winter Soldier: Winter Kills
Although I didn't like this quite as much as I expected to, it's still making the list. It's a good story, good character piece, and a good indication of just where the WS is going to locate himself in the Marvel Universe (something I've been wondering about).

6. The All-New Atom
Full of Silver Age style fun, this book has been one of my favorites since it came out, and I haven't been disappointed yet with the mix of humor and action. I know that we can't necessarily count on Ryan staying around for the long run, but I hope he's here for a while.

7. Giffen-era Justice League Trades
These are awesome--funny as hell, but well-plotted and consistently characterized. I wish more books were available.

8. Green Lantern Trades and Back Issues
I was never all that big a GL fan back when I was a kid, apart from really liking the concept of the ring. But now? Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, an interesting and complex Hal Jordan? I've really been enjoying the catch-up. (And a big thank you to those of you who pointed me in that direction, you probably know who you are. :))

9. Young Avengers
Um, did they have an issue come out in 2006? It's been so long, you know... In any case, it was consistently a good read, reasonably well-plotted, good characterization, plenty of twists and turns, a bright spot in Marvel's currently-not-at-its-best lineup.

10. Birds of Prey
The twelve-year-old wanted to try this one, and so we did, and we all like it a lot. Humor and action and Strong Female Characters. It's not at the top of my reading pile every month but it's fairly close to it.